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For the time being I'll start this thread with this. I know we can find information about the Lucretius ring in the introduction to one of Munro's editions to his Lucretius. And I clipped that photo of the ring somewhere, so that exists on the internet too, but I don't know where the original is located. The sketches in the second picture are, on the left, from the sketchbook of Herculaneum discoveries (need link) and the one on the right is from the Munro book.
An article I clipped somewhere -- not in English, but good pictures and possibly can be read through translators:
https://www.academia.edu/12743915/Immag…afia_lucreziana
I hate it when I can't find something. I just posted a copy of the above into a facebook thread, and I'd like to be able to post a link to where the photo of the original can be seen. If anyone comes across that please add it to this thread. I know I have seen an entry in a book or a museum page where I originally got this (the image on the left)
.
Outside of the Villa Borghese in Rome. I saw this the only time I went there in 2010.
The bust is evidently not ancient. The inscription has the Italian (rather than Latin) spelling of his name. I can't find much about it, though.
I'm coming up with a date range of 1859-1861 for the statue.
Edit to add;
In the gardens of the Pincian, it was Giuseppe Mazzini's (1805-1872) urging that lined the viali with busts of notable Italians.
Though the Villa Ludovisi was built over at the turn of the 20th century, several villas and their gardens still occupy the hill, including the Villa Borghese gardens, linked to the Pincio by a pedestrian bridge that crosses the via del Muro Torto in the narrow cleft below; the Muro Torto is the winding stretch of the Aurelian Wall, pierced by the Porta Pinciana.
Curious And Unusual - The Busts in the Pincian Gardens
This webpage suggests that there were 52 such busts. An interesting read!
Hard to say if the bust relates to the ring without some side views. The eyes are rather pronounced in each of them, though.
Here's another image. It's on this site https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/contributors/lucretius but I don't see any attribution.
Looks like they probably got it from Wikipedia... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucretius
It also shows up here https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/de-la-nature…r-ce/1134766966
Here it says that this image is an engraving from a bust https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lucretius That might be the bust above, but if so it's not a good match to my eye.
Here's another cameo in plaster that is supposed to be Lucretius.
c. 1820, Pietro Paoletti
As for Munro's ring, I have now traced its history for a period of more than 50 years. I will present my findings tomorrow evening 
There are also lots of images of Epicurus that turn up in a Google search of Lucretius 
The one I showed above was an Italian souvenir made for travelers on a Grand Tour.
The Munro ring was thought by three experts in the 19th century to be a genuine ring from the late Roman republic. I don't know anything about the busts.
One other angle from the Villa Borghese:
An article I clipped somewhere -- not in English, but good pictures and possibly can be read through translators:
https://www.academia.edu/12743915/Immag…afia_lucreziana
I was slightly surprised that they date that engraved gem to the 1st century BCE. I hadn't realized that was contemporary to him. My only question would be: do we *know* it's Lucretius the poet and not another 1st c. BCE member of the gens Lucretia:
My only question would be: do we *know* it's Lucretius the poet and not another 1st c. BCE member of the gens Lucretia:
I love the way you phrased that question. It calls for both a history debate, or even more so, a canonics discussion on the proper definition to be given to the word "know!"
